Applied Physics: The American Physical Society (APS), the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) with support from the American Institute of Physics (AIP), lead a project entitled the PhysTEC project. It is aimed at increasing the number of qualified physics and physical science teachers. Included on their site is a page on assessment.

Art & Design: The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) identifies standards for student learning outcomes in both practice and research-oriented degrees in a variety of specializations in the arts (e.g., film/video, sculpture, theatre design.)

Arts: Outcomes Assessment and Arts Program in Higher Education explores the issue of outcomes assessment in higher education from the perspective of arts programs emphasizing that outcomes assessment in the arts must adopt an artistic approach, not a technological one. Download the pdf document.

Biological Science: The American Institute for Biological Sciences provides numerous links that offers interesting information. They also host the 2003 publication by the National Research Council (NRC) entitled Bio2010: Tranforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists, which outlines a strategy to revamp and improve undergraduate curriculum to better prepare biologists. This page reports on a survey to measure the impact of this publication. The site also contains an education section.

Dance: The National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) has a webpage with information for various options for competencies for degrees in dance. A list of specializations for baccalaureate degrees in dance follows, with each linked to a parallel downloadable PDF enumerating detailed competencies for that specialization. In this way, users of these resources may download only the specific information of interest.

Economics: Like many other disciplinary organizations, The American Economic Association maintains an excellent website with links to support teaching and learning. The AEA also collaborates with the Journal of Economic Education and the National Council on Economic Education to establish an electronic journal for working papers in economic education. It is called the Economics Research Network (ERN) Educator and is part of the Social Science Research (SSRN). Visit the website to browse all abstracts published in this journal.

History: The American Historical Association (AHA) has developed criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences to compliment accreditation standards being developed in many states. An emphasis is on analytical and critical thinking skills with a global perspective of the entire human experience. A suggested reading for history faculty is Competency-Based Approach to Teaching History Surveys by William W. Cutler III in the April 2002 issues of Perspectives.

Kinesiology: The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance publishes standards for various programs that may be of interest. More importantly the American Physical Therapy Association includes pages for educators including assessment. This page entitled Outcomes Assessment in Physical Therapy Education is a valuable resource for assessment planning.

Literature & Writing: The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) have provided on their website twelve inter-related “Standards for the English Language Arts”. These are outcomes students should be able to demonstrate on completion of their program which reflect information literacy and competency.

Music: The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) supports the use of student competencies for both learning and accreditation through documents that demonstrate how “the institution’s curricula, processes, and evaluation systems ensure the development of basic competencies for all students enrolled in a specific program.” A list of specializations for baccalaureate degrees in music follows, with each linked to parallel downloadable PDF enumerating detailed competencies for that specialization. In this way, users of these resources may download only the specific information of interest.

Political Science: Noting the importance of assessment, the American Political Science Association has an annual Teaching conference and a very robust assessment page.

Sociology: An excellent resource page is provided by the American Sociological Associationfound at http://www.asanet.org/teaching/resources.cfm. This page includes a link to TRAILS (Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology) which includes assessment examples.

Spanish: The Modern Languages Assn has some resources but especially of interest is this note: Perhaps more relevant is the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese that hosts important resources on their assessment page.

Theatre: The National Association of Schools of Theatre’s (NAST) discusses the essential competencies in both general and sub-discipline-specific terms for undergraduate through doctoral degrees. Supporting documents include the organizational philosophy on accreditation.